Lancelot FPGA

[blackarrow]

Hello everybody!

My company, Black Arrow Software, has just started manufacturing Lancelot FPGAs ( 380Mh/sec - 400Mh/sec ).

We are using the most performant (3N) Xilinx ICs.

The Lancelot device was developed by ngzhang. Details in this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=79835.0

If there is anybody wants to purchase them please let me know. They are in stock and ready to ship.

You can purchase it from our reseller's website: http://www.cardreaderfactory.com/shop/lancelot.html

Price: $350 / pcs. Includes power supply and cooler. Discounts available for more than 10 pcs.

Shipping price depends on the destination.

Payment: We accept Bitcoin (at today's mtgox's rate), Western Union and Bank Transfer.
Shipping: We are based in Shenzhen, local pickup available. We can also ship worldwide with DHL, UPS and EMS.

Regards!

[blackarrow]

Mining with 2 devices: ICA0 - icarus, ICA1 - lancelot



Our lancelot without the cooler:

[blackarrow]

As one power supply is quite heavy and can power up to 4 boards, we think it is best to sell it separately in order to give the customer the choice to opt out if he/she doesn't need it.

[lenny_]

They are without fans? Fanless operation is possible without overheating and HW errors?
What's their power draw at current hashrate and default firmware?

[blackarrow]

Fan is included. At the moment is quite big and we're looking into how improve this.

The default firmware is running at 200mhz. We've tried the v42b firmware but it's just reporting faster speeds and doing less work.

The power consumption is 30Watt / device.

[blackarrow]

Using these boards, we are able to provide the same hashing power of ASIC (66Mhash) with 173 devices.

We can supply 173 devices for 38000USD. The highest cost for us in manufacturing these boards are the FPGA IC but we might be able to negotiate a better price with our Xillinx IC supplier based on high quantity and will report the savings back to you.

I know that they are not as money or power efficient as the ASIC but here are our advantages:

1. they are in stock and can start hashing tomorrow.  if you wait 3 more months for an ASIC, you're not hashing therefore loosing money
2. the ROI is 100% in 2-3 months therefore is quite a good deal. no bank will give you this interest.
3. the FPGA IC are programmable and you can use them for something else too.
4. today, this is the most efficient and accessible bitcoin hashing technology that you can get
5. we do accept bank transfers therefore you have a guarantee that you'll receive your goods (you know who we are, where to find us and can even pick up your devices directly from our office).
6. We price our devices in USD. The price won't vary with the bitcoin value which always goes up therefore making the goods more expensive (what happened with Avalon ASIC)

[blackarrow]

The official price today on an Avalon ASIC is 11250 USD and you cannot get it (no stock).  There are few Avalon ASIC on ebay for $30000 or more.

At $38000 we can match the hashing power of the Avalon using these devices and we do not have limited stock! You should bare in mind that FPGA can be reprogrammed to do something else therefore they will always have a sale value, while the ASIC cannot do anything else than hashing.

[maxmint]

I'm completely new to mining, so a couple of questions:
- What else would I need to mine with this? Do I just need a computer with USB connector or will I need anything else?
- When ordering multiple devices, will each of them need its own USB connector on my computer? Or can I link the devides somehow?
- How long would shipping to Europe take?

Thanks.

[shawtux]

looks good. sadly the payment options are hard. i'd wish paypal were an option. from chile its kinda hard to pay otherwise.

[ictin]

A few questions:
1. You say that you because the power supply can support 4 units, you will sell the boards also without power supply. What is the price without power supply?
2. I was trying to play a little on the site to see the shipping price, and when i am trying to put more than 1 unit in the shopping cart i get an error: "The number of products in the inventory is not enough for your order. " and the quantity is not updated.

[ZKRiNG]

Looks nice sure you can mount a nice rig, but only its for bitcoin or you can use for alternative cryptocurrecies?

[salty]

I don't know whether to post this, sorry if it seems rude, but I feel I must say it as a potential customer...

Why can't you use your talents to develop something using the ASIC platform? I for one am waiting for the dust to settle and will be looking to buy into ASIC technology once there are units on warehouse shelves. I am not particularly interested in massive profits, just a little profit plus the satisfaction of mining for the resilience of the network. I am under the impression that the Avalon's custom ASIC chips are/will be available in bulk to people such as yourselves, and the developers specifically want this technology to be distributed.

The issue of electricity cost vs. mining revenue will be making new investment into FPGAs too risky for me, sorry

[blackarrow]

You need:

- What else would I need to mine with this? Do I just need a computer with USB connector or will I need anything else?

1. a computer running windows or linux
2. lancelot devices
3. usb hubs (we can provide this for you too)
4. power supply for the lancelot devices (we can provide 12V 10A - 4 devices at once) or you can purchase several ATX power supplies (eg: 300 watt power supply will power up 10 lancelot). we can provide you with a PCB in which you plug in the ATX power supply and get multiple wires for each lancelot device

- When ordering multiple devices, will each of them need its own USB connector on my computer? Or can I link the devides somehow?

You need passive usb hubs. I think that there's a limit of 256 devices per computer port.

How long would shipping to Europe take?

This depends on your preference:
- China UPS and DHL (1-3 working days)
- HK UPS and DHL (3-5 working days)
- China EMS (5-7 working days)

We suggest HK UPS/DHL as it is the best compromise ( price / speed ).

[blackarrow]

looks good. sadly the payment options are hard. i'd wish paypal were an option. from chile its kinda hard to pay otherwise.

We'll look into paypal but at the moment it is not available. Are you aware that paypal charges about 5% per transaction?

[blackarrow]

A few questions:
1. You say that you because the power supply can support 4 units, you will sell the boards also without power supply. What is the price without power supply?

I think it will be $10 cheaper. We need to check this with the distributor.
It's probably best to buy without the power supply as they are quite heavy and will increase shipping costs.

2. I was trying to play a little on the site to see the shipping price, and when i am trying to put more than 1 unit in the shopping cart i get an error: "The number of products in the inventory is not enough for your order. " and the quantity is not updated.

I think we've fixed this. Please try again. Let me know if the error persists.

[blackarrow]

Looks nice sure you can mount a nice rig, but only its for bitcoin or you can use for alternative cryptocurrecies?

You can use them for any currency that is not using Scrypt.

You can use them for: BTC, BTE, PPC, TRC.
You cannot use them for: LTC

As soon as anybody comes up with the FPGA code for Scrypt, you will be able to reprogram them to mine for LTC (as long as the FPGA code doesn't require external ram)

[blackarrow]

I don't know whether to post this, sorry if it seems rude, but I feel I must say it as a potential customer...

Why can't you use your talents to develop something using the ASIC platform? I for one am waiting for the dust to settle and will be looking to buy into ASIC technology once there are units on warehouse shelves. I am not particularly interested in massive profits, just a little profit plus the satisfaction of mining for the resilience of the network. I am under the impression that the Avalon's custom ASIC chips are/will be available in bulk to people such as yourselves, and the developers specifically want this technology to be distributed.

The issue of electricity cost vs. mining revenue will be making new investment into FPGAs too risky for me, sorry

We are looking into developing an ASIC but we won't sell them until we have a working product.

Power consumption is not such a big issue for FPGA. They use only a little bit more than ASIC.

[maxmint]

I'm thinking about ordering 4 of them. The description says:
"1 x Lancelot, with standard cooling system
1 x 12volt 10Amp Power Adapter (100-240volts) - can power 4 boards
1 x CDROM (with necessary software, documents)"

So would I get 4 power adapters? I guess I would only need one, right?
How can I order without power adapters?

[robotrebellion]

1. they are in stock and can start hashing tomorrow.  if you wait 3 more months for an ASIC, you're not hashing therefore loosing money

My experience with ordering from China to North America is that it takes 4-6 weeks for delivery. It would be better to get on an ASIC waiting list.

Have you considered hosting these devices yourself and renting their hash-power out to people?

[shawtux]

looks good. sadly the payment options are hard. i'd wish paypal were an option. from chile its kinda hard to pay otherwise.

We'll look into paypal but at the moment it is not available. Are you aware that paypal charges about 5% per transaction?

i didnt know that. still interested though